7

– Harry's Bar in Venice has offered hospitality to tourists and expatriates since the days of Ernest Hemingway. But in recent months Harry's has noticed a sharp drop in the number of Americans showing up at the home of the Bellini cocktail. So restaurant owner Arrigo Cipriani has a novel solution: a 20% discount to subprime-stricken Americans for everything on the menu. The discount will last as long as the weak dollar keeps Americans away from the classic Venice establishment, Cipriani told Reuters. US citizens won't need to bring their passports—"We will judge by the accent," he said. If other Anglophones manage to fool the bartender, they'll get the discount as well, he added. Indeed, Cipriani knows something about deception: he was convicted of tax fraud last year.

FYI - I had a dinner and Bellini at Harrys in 04. Harry's is a 1920 style dinner, Ernest Hemingway used to have his own table in one corner of Harry's Bar. Immediately following World War II, Hemingway dedicated to the bar a page of his famous novel "Across the River and into the Trees.".

Venice is a one of a kind place and a "must see", but nothing is cheap in Venice or at Harrys, even with the discount. It is sad to see most Americans will not be able to afford to go there. Especially, the younger generation, which will likely be burden with trying to pay for the "baby boomer's" wars, Medicare, Social Security etc.... At least they have the internet and can look at the pictures....

This reminds me of Asimov's foundation series where humans had gotten so lethargic that the "scientists" of that fictional day would write papers and books based on other texts that were written hundreds or thousands of years before without actually going to the places to study the subjects.

Now if only someone could invent a personal shield with a mini-nuclear reactor...

The Japanese have discovered a way to make a small nuclear reactor to power a single family home. It should be interesting....Have you seen the home and car hydrogen fueling system from Honda you can fuel your car and home and store the pump in your garage. If the Fed raises the lending rate then maybe we could go there.

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations said the global economic slowdown may worsen amid an ``entrenched'' credit squeeze and signaled concern over the dollar's slide.

``Since our last meeting, there have been at times sharp fluctuations in major currencies, and we are concerned about their possible implications for economic and financial stability,'' the G-7's finance ministers and central bankers said in a statement after talks in Washington today.

The officials downgraded their outlook for the world economy from that of two months ago, blaming the U.S. housing recession, credit-market turmoil, commodity prices and inflation pressures. The dollar has lost 8 percent against the euro and 6 percent versus the yen since the G-7 last met in Tokyo in February.

``They're trying to discreetly throw a lifeline to the dollar,'' said Sophia Drossos, a currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York, who used to help manage the Federal Reserve's foreign-exchange holdings. ``Had they not said anything, the dollar would have resumed its sell-off. This acknowledges there has been increased volatility.''